Hobbyists Boot iOS 16 on Xiaomi and Nothing Phones

First reported 19 Oct, 19:46 UTCSource: Decrypt + 1 moreLast editorial activity 19 Oct, 19:46 UTCWrite a comment ↓

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Hobbyists are booting iOS 16 on Xiaomi and Nothing phones and posting the proof, according to Decrypt. The results barely work, but they suggest Apple's software is no longer welded to Apple's hardware.

What the demonstrations show

Videos of iOS 16 starting on a Redmi Note 12 and a Nothing 3a have spread on X. A clip of the Redmi Note 12, posted October 18, had passed 2 million views, Decrypt reports.

Another developer posted a build running on the Nothing 3a. Decrypt describes the effort as hobbyists running Apple's iOS, the software that drives iPhones, on Android phones simply to show that it can be done.

How the ios-sweet project is built

The open-source ios-sweet project, published so anyone can read, use and change its code, combines Apple's XNU kernel with unmodified iOS 16.7.16 files. The kernel is the layer that handles communication with the chip, memory and storage, and Apple publishes it openly.

The project targets the Redmi Note 10 Pro and its Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G chip, with the kernel patched for that hardware. Unmodified iOS 16.7.16 files taken from an iPhone X then run on top. The result remains far from a working phone: Wi-Fi, mobile data, audio, camera and graphics acceleration do not yet function.

Earlier efforts in the other direction

Cross-platform experiments are not new, though until now they have run the other way. A project called iDroid let early iPhones boot Android in April 2010. About a decade later, the security firm Corellium launched Project Sandcastle, which brought Android 10 to iPhones with Apple's A10 chip, according to Decrypt.

Decrypt says no one had demonstrated the reverse direction until now. A separate effort called HackiOS aims to rewrite the code fully so that actual iOS runs on Android hardware, and says that if it succeeds the project will be entirely free and open, with no paywalls or premium tiers.

Why the work matters

iOS is built to run only on Apple's own hardware, and buyers have so far chosen software together with their phone. Decrypt argues that if that link breaks, cheap and older phones could one day run software they were never sold with.

For now, the builds barely work, and Decrypt presents the demonstrations as evidence of a possibility rather than a usable product.

Open questions

Will support for Wi-Fi, mobile data, audio, camera and graphics be added?
Can the HackiOS rewrite deliver a working iOS on Android hardware?